Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir has declared that locking down the state without any meaningful palliative measures for the people during the time the lockdown will last will only aggravate their sufferings.
The Governor who recounted his experience while quarantined for treatment after he tested positive to COVID-19 infection on Thursday, said that though there was a reason to totally lock down the state to check the spread of COVID-19 pandemic among the people, he declared that it will be more suicidal to keep people at home without anything to keep them alive.
According to him, “yes COVID-19 pandemic is dangerous but I make bold to tell you that keeping people locked down at home without food is more suicidal. COVID-19 will not kill such people but hunger will do, it is not a good development”.
Bala Mohammed who made the explanation when he visited the Muda Lawal market to commiserate with the traders over the unfortunate fire incident at the market on Thursday, however, appealed to people of the state to adhere to all the preventive measures put in place which includes regular hands washing with clean water, Hygienic living, use of hands sanitizers and other measures.
He further urged the traders to ensure that they protect themselves against coronavirus and maintain social distancing practice in all they did and said that the rising cases of COVID-19 in the neighbouring Kano state are a source of concern adding that this will make the government enforce the closure of its borders with other states.
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Governor Bala Mohammed explained that “Bauchi has closed all its borders, we are just coming out from a meeting with our security agencies, we are going to enforce some minimal lockdown but we cannot afford total lockdown because people must eat, but all our borders should remain closed.”
He added that “What is happening in Kano should be something that should worry us because whatever touches Kano, touches Bauchi. We are inexorably connected, if you have 20 cases in Kano, be sure we have to really man our borders to make sure no goods, no person, nobody comes from Kano and nobody from your market goes to Kano”.
Bala Mohammed explained that, “This is because this thing (COVID-19) is a reality. Of course, we too are not going to Gombe, Yobe, Jos, and Taraba. We should try to exist alone by ourselves within the state. We have made contact tracing of all the people that came in contact with me and the others”.
According to the Governor, Bauchi is getting free of Coronavirus even as he pleaded with the Imams and Pastors in the state to continue to pray for the state so that coronavirus will go somewhere else and not Bauchi.
He said: “I pray that may Allah take my own coronavirus disease as expiration for all the people of Bauchi State so that they don’t have it.”
Bala Mohammed then assured people of the state that his administration will continue to be at their service by embarking on developmental projects and programs that have impacts on their lives soliciting however for their support and cooperation.
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